KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 7 — A lawmaker urged Putrajaya today to re-introduce English-language instruction at selected government schools, instead of limiting them to the only the elite who can afford education at private junior colleges and international schools.

Kampar MP Dr Ko Chung Sen pointed out that if the MARA Junior Science Colleges (MRSM) could now offer English-language qualification alongside the SPM examination, other national-type schools should be given similar options.

He noted that the MRSM college in Parit, Perak, is now the third institution in the country to offer the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE), which is an international qualification at the secondary school level, and that all MRSM colleges will implement the dual-certificate system - the IGCSE and the Form Five public examination, SPM - by 2016.

“Obviously, the MRSM colleges feel that SPM alone is not sufficient to prepare the students for the higher education and critical courses which are mainly conducted in English,” said Dr Ko in a statement today.

“Currently there are 49 MRSM offering 9,000 places in the country. This compared to the total of 462,940 pupils who sat for the Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) this year. That is less than 2 per cent of the total student population,” added the DAP lawmaker.

He pointed out that those who can enjoy the benefits of an English-language education in the MRSM public institution are only the privileged elite.

“If the ICGSE is good enough for MARA Junior Science Colleges, it must also be good for the rest of the country,” said Dr Ko, who is a heart surgeon.

“Our SPM alone is not sufficient to produce enough human capital to meet the demand from multi-national companies, either local or overseas...global economy. I hereby urge the government to bring back the English medium schools in a few selected government schools, to improve the performance of our school children in the international assessments and the ranking of our universities, so we may truly become a developed nation,” he added.

Dr Ko stressed that fluency in English, the lingua franca of the world, in both daily conversations and technical subjects, would help Malaysia achieve developed nation status.

Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad criticised Putrajaya last September for excluding the policy of teaching science and mathematics in English (PPSMI) from the country’s education blueprint, saying the policy could boost the rankings of public universities.

Putrajaya has made English a compulsory subject to pass in SPM by 2016.